Frasier: Which Crane Brother Has The Highest IQ

Which of Frasier’s brothers has the highest IQ, the titular character or his younger sibling Niles? When development began on producing a new sitcom for Kelsey Grammer following the end of Cheers, the show wasn’t even supposed to be a spinoff. Grammer and the producers behind Cheers originally developed a new series that would have cast the actor as a paraplegic publisher who worked from a luxury apartment. After years of playing Frasier Crane, Grammer was ready to move on, but NBC eventually insisted on the series being a direct spinoff.

Frasier thus brought the psychiatrist to Seattle for a fresh start, where he reconnects with father Marty – who Frasier claimed was dead on Cheers – and brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce). Frasier went to receive critical acclaim and ran for eleven seasons. When the sitcom came to an end in 2004, Grammer had played Frasier Crane constantly for 20 years, which tied him with Gunsmoke star James Arness, who played Marshal Dillion on that classic western series from 1955 to 1975.

A major element of Frasier is the title character’s relationship with brother Niles. The two are alike in many ways, as they enjoy the classier things in life like fine cuisine, opera and theatre, and they can be incredibly snobby, especially over Marty’s more down-to-earth hobbies. They were also fiercely competitive with one another to the point of childishness, which is a habit that often got them in trouble. This behavior is explored in Frasier’s (which has a reboot in development) sixth season episode “IQ,” which revealed to them the results of an IQ test they took as children. Frasier’s IQ is 129, while Niles – much to his older brother’s chagrin – has a 156 IQ.

Their mother kept these results from the brothers, claiming there was only a two-point difference in their results. For context, Niles 156 IQ is well over the standard for Mensa membership, while Frasier’s is just below the minimum. Of course, this means they’re both incredibly intelligent, but Frasier still takes the news poorly. By the end of “IQ,” they admit that their silly competition for their mother’s affection at least drove them to work hard on their education, which let them pursue their dream jobs.

Frasier is considered the more grounded of the Crane brothers, which is attributed to his time with the Cheers gang. In fact, Niles has been described as the man Frasier – a role first offered to John Lithgow – would have become if he hadn’t spent his time on Cheers, which is likely how he comes to quickly accept that Niles has a higher IQ. Despite seemingly coming to peace with each other by the end of Frasier’s “IQ,” they quickly fall back into competitive bickering in later episodes.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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